"MIRAOULOUS STATUES”

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2339, 8 January 1926, Page 7

"MIRAOULOUS STATUES”

FRENCH ABBE FLOGGED. ' MEDIEVAL SUPERSTITION IN MODERN FRANCE. [By Electric Cable —Copyright. 1 [Aust, and N.Z. Cable Association.! PARIS. January 6. A violent attack on the Abbe Desmoyers, of Bombon, near Melun. Is feature din the “Press.” After Mass, twelve persons threw pepper In hla eyes, bound him, stripped him of his plothes. and flogged him alternately. His cries attracted gendarmes, who arrested th e assailants. They declare that they had come expressly from Bordeaux to chastise the Abbe, whom they accused of witchcraft. They blamed him for family misfortunes. The assailants were charged with conspiracy, assault, and outraging morality. Behind the attack Is the weirdest story.

-i damn Mesmln had a statue of the Virgin which wept, but ceased to weep when removed to the convent. She replaced it with a facsimile from Milan, which did not weep, but exhaled a sweet perfume. That also ceased. Madams Mesmln began to suffer, then accused the Abbe of witchcraft, despite the fact that the authorities (demonstrated the absurdity of miraculous statues.